Context
As part of the University of Bradford’s (UoB) Business and Community Engagement Strategy, Career and Employability Services (CES) reaches out to companies across Bradford inviting them to collaborate with the University in supporting students to enhance their employability and career prospects by offering opportunities to gain experience in a real-life work environment through the University’s’ summer internship programme. This also provides exposure for the companies to students who may become their next generation workforce.
Many larger companies run their own summer internships, but historically students from the University of Bradford have sometimes struggled to compete successfully in the open market as many are from lower socio-economic backgrounds and/or ethnic minority communities and have had little exposure to professional networks through family or community connections. The University therefore started to seek ways to enhance these students’ chances of accessing such opportunities by tapping into organisations own aspirations to diversify their workforce.
In 2021 Lloyd’s bank expressed an interest to work with marketing students who would work closely with their own team on developing their brand. The CES team arranged to meet with Lloyd’s to negotiate a means of fulfilling their requirements in a way which would enable disadvantaged UoB students to compete, i.e. by taking a positive action approach.
Action & approach
Working from the blueprint of a similar internship programme which had generated positive outcomes for both the company and students involved, CES and Lloyds Bank worked together to develop a positive action internship programme.
In the early stages of planning, academics from the Faculty attended meetings with Lloyds to ensure the opportunity was appropriate and aligned with the curriculum. Besides students who were on a Marketing degree programme, it was agreed that others could apply who had studied marketing modules within a wider programme.
Lloyd’s developed a job description and advert to ensure that the internship met the needs of the bank and that students had the appropriate information to prepare applications. The team supported students with essential employability skills, such as responding to deadlines, identifying evidence of their own skills against the job description, and preparing their application via the university online platform, Handshake.
Lloyds shortlisted applicants and provided those shortlisted with further support including a fifteen minute ‘mini’ prep session, which gave the students an opportunity to learn what Lloyds expected in their employees. This insight allowed students to prepare themselves for their one-hour interview. Constructive feedback was given to all candidates, whether successful or not.
Impact
There were positive outcomes for all students involved. These include students being stretched and challenged within their own abilities and employability skills. Students were able to explore the diverse marketing roles that are available in a large and well-known company such as Lloyd’s bank, which some of our students would not have thought of as a potential marketing career.
Students followed the same route to becoming a Lloyds employee as any other role, however they were supported by the employer and the CES team at each step. Students found that this helped them to develop their own employability skills and confidence.
Successful applicants can reflect on their internship experience and the application of their learning into real life work situations. The CES team continue to support students to use their experiences and new skills to develop their own professional CVs and secure high skilled employment when they graduate.
Although the internships were temporary work experience, Lloyds have shown a commitment to keeping in touch with students professionally, and students were encouraged to apply for positions when these were advertised. The programme was repeated in 2022 and two students from this cohort have been offered positions after graduation.
Conclusions & advice
As the relationship with Lloyd’s bank develops, we would like to highlight the internship programme as part of our recruitment to the Marketing degree programme so students are aware of the internship opportunities available on this programme.
The success of the programme came from the three-way collaboration between the academic team, Lloyds bank, and the CES team working together in to support the development of each student.
